Christianity must be supernatural

Andrew Murray 1828-1917 was a South African evangelical, teacher, pastor and missiologist whose writings and books have impacted generations. He firmly believed that if Christianity must be relevant to our age, then, it must be supernatural in all its actions. Quoting an author in his book, REACHING YOUR WORLD FOR CHRIST, he has this to say, “Christianity is nothing if it is not supernatural.” Murray insists that the one great need of the Church today and its one great lack can be summarised in the word – supernatural!

He says that to some, “the supernatural may appear unnatural. That is simply because they have never understood how the supernatural may become, in the true sense, most natural. When they allow God to take perfect possession, the movements of our spiritual life can be as natural and joyous as our brethren.”

The comprehension of the full dimension of things of the supernatural can only be by the Spirit. Like the apostle Paul said, man, cannot with his finite mind comprehend the things of the spirit unless they are revealed to him, “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God…But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor.2:11-14).

Andrew Murray argues that Christianity came from heaven and from God who rules and controls all things on earth to the minutest detail. As such, Christianity should bear God’s signature and imprints. He says without the Holy Spirit there cannot be any Christianity, and that “Christianity is nothing if it is not, from the beginning to the end, through all and in all, the hidden, but direct and mighty, energy of the living God continuing and working out the great redemption that He accomplished in His Son.” The Church and every individual he states is “upheld and guided by the omnipotent action of the triune God.”

For Andrew Murray, the statement, “Christianity is nothing if it is not supernatural,” has various implications. It implies that we must recognise the Holy Spirit as our only hope and source of power. If we recognise the Holy Spirit as our only hope and power, it will lead us to seek Him through the inspired word of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit and in prayer; for “prayer will bring blessing. The measure of prayer is the measure of power. Every deeper insight into what Christianity is, into what our daily life ought to be, into what the ministry is and needs, will lead us to one deep conviction: Christianity is nothing unless it is supernatural.”

For Murray, the supernatural means a lot. It means our total dependence on the Holy Spirit; it means our total reliance on him to do the work the Church is called to do; it means resigning ourselves to prayer until the power is given to us. For Murray, the Church operating without of the power Holy Spirit is an anomaly. As he states, “Supernatural! Give the word its full force. Let us cultivate with our whole hearts a sense of God’s power actively at work in us, an attitude of dependence and prayer and waiting on God, and a deep consciousness that God will work in us and in the Church around us, above what we can ask or think.” Contact: pastoracukachi@gmail.com